The rise of Linux desktop is inevitable — it’s time music software developers got on board

Configure and optimize you computer for Audio.
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Zeisner wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2026 10:22 pm
lunardigs wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2026 9:27 pm Oh look, another non-user in here telling us what Linux is.
Amazing
Not much to use if all the distros I tested slow down after 30-60 minutes until I have to wait for several minutes just for the start menu to open, even on a modern machine with a strong CPU and plenty of RAM. Some distros like Mint can be woken up again after standby/hibernation, others like CachyOS need to be restarted. The cache system is broken, just like the scheduler. Maybe compiling your own kernel is the solution (Something everyone highly recommended) but I don't care anymore. I rather go back to Atari TOS than trying to turn a Linux desktop distro into something useful. I don't want to tinker endlessly ("Best car ever!"), I want a tool that works if I need it.
Wow, yeah, that sounds terrible. I'm sorry to hear that ...
Weird

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Zeisner wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2026 10:32 pm
j_e_g wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2026 8:16 pm Yeah, damn that Cubase, Logic, Sonar, Pro Tools, etc. Who the hell needs them? Apparently not linux users.
Of course not. Linux desktop fanboys don't actually work with their distros. They don't make music or mix or render 3D graphics and so on. They only tinker with the OS just like the crazy car guy with his unfinished "best car ever" that will never drive a single meter. Actually finishing it would defeat the purpose.
😆

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ghettosynth wrote: I didn't watch the video.
I did. To sum up, he was pleasantly "surprised" by Linux. He said "everything just worked", except for his bluetooth XBox controller and... wait for it...

AUDIO!!!

I wonder why?

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Were there even class-compliant Firewire interfaces? Those I've seen all came with proprietary drivers for Windows and MacOS only so you couldn't use them with Linux anyway.

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j_e_g wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2026 10:53 pm
ghettosynth wrote: I didn't watch the video.
I did. To sum up, he was pleasantly "surprised" by Linux. He said "everything just worked", except for his bluetooth XBox controller and... wait for it...

AUDIO!!!

I wonder why?
Where, at what minute?

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Zeisner wrote: Were there even class-compliant Firewire interfaces?
For Firewire, I don't believe there ever was any equivalent to USB's Class Compliantcy. Back in those days, every single hardware device shipped with its own drivers, It wasn't until the iPhone and iOS that class compliant devices showed up for audio hardware. And by that time, USB was the buss of choice for handheld devices.

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lunardigs wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2026 10:55 pm
j_e_g wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2026 10:53 pm
ghettosynth wrote: I didn't watch the video.
I did. To sum up, he was pleasantly "surprised" by Linux. He said "everything just worked", except for his bluetooth XBox controller and... wait for it...

AUDIO!!!

I wonder why?
Where, at what minute?
11:57 And this behavior is exactly what currently is happening to me:

1) Installed MX linux, and onboard audio is working fine.
2) Updated MX (which snuck in Poopwire. damn it. should NOT have updated).
3) I can see audio meter levels, but absolutely no sound for onboard.

I know Itchy recently added support for new audio chips to aLSA. Maybe a regression with an older chip? Anyway, I'm not going to bother debugging the morass that is linux audio to perhaps file a bug report. I'll re-install the working setup instead

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j_e_g wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2026 11:30 pm
lunardigs wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2026 10:55 pm
j_e_g wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2026 10:53 pm
ghettosynth wrote: I didn't watch the video.
I did. To sum up, he was pleasantly "surprised" by Linux. He said "everything just worked", except for his bluetooth XBox controller and... wait for it...

AUDIO!!!

I wonder why?
Where, at what minute?
11:59 And this behavior is exactly what currently is happening to me:

1) Installed MX linux, and onboard audio is working fine.
2) Updated MX (which snuck in Poopwire. damn it. should NOT have updated).
3) I can see audio meter levels, but absolutely no sound for onboard.

I know Itchy recently added support for new audio chips to aLSA. Maybe a regression with an older chip? Anyway, I'm not going to bother debugging the morass that is linux audio to perhaps file a bug report. I'll re-install the working setup instead
Nah, if it's Pipewire then it's probably the session manager. Which would be Wireplumber on most distros, so try: systemctl --user restart wireplumber.service
A step further would be to restart both pipewire and wireplumber: systemctl --user restart pipewire wireplumber.service
It's most likely not an actual audio driver (ALSA) thing.

Alternately, if it's a laptop, it might be a headphone jack thing, where the internal hardware does weird stuff trying to powersave/switch between the internal speaker amp and headphone amp ... The trick there might be to simply plugin some headphones and then unplug them.
This is the laptop design being clever though, and doing something non-standard usually.

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Zeisner wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2026 10:54 pm Were there even class-compliant Firewire interfaces? Those I've seen all came with proprietary drivers for Windows and MacOS only so you couldn't use them with Linux anyway.
IDK, assume no, but FFADO is based on FreeBoB and that was drivers for a defined set of chips, appearantly BridgeCo.

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I tried this qpwgraph (or something like that) which claimed to be a Poopwire connection manager. Then I tried my own BackupBand app, QTractor, and Muse. Whereas before all 3 worked fine with onboard audio, now none of them do even though qpwgraph shows lines connecting those program's master audio outs to system.
systemctl --user restart pipewire wireplumber.service
OMG! POOPWIRE REQUIRES SYSTEMD???

I've been booting MX with its SysVInit option. (systemd gives errors and is slower).

This audio stack is CRAP! systemD????

I'll reboot and try the systemctl commands.

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j_e_g wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2026 8:16 pm
Largos wrote: I can't think of anything that would put a "migrating musician" off more than the entire audio being taken over by one app
Yeah, damn that Cubase, Logic, Sonar, Pro Tools, etc. Who the hell needs them? Apparently not linux users.
Nobody needs them. Thanks for reminding me of that exclusive audio crap on windows.
Largos wrote: FFADO is no longer needed.
Neither is firewire. Buy an audio interface made in this century, you cheap git. Then the rest of us won't be saddled with your obsolete bloat.
I was expecting firewire not to work but they made it so. I doubt my ownership of a firewire device is a deciding factor for code inclusion though.
I would recommend a linux user not invest in thunderbolt devices. And for FIREWIRE, it's a "Oh hell no".
Can't disagree with that.

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j_e_g wrote: Thu Mar 26, 2026 12:10 am I tried this qpwgraph (or something like that) which claimed to be a Poopwire connection manager. Then I tried my own BackupBand app, QTractor, and Muse. Whereas before all 3 worked fine with onboard audio, now none of them do even though qpwgraph shows lines connecting those program's master audio outs to system.
systemctl --user restart pipewire wireplumber.service
OMG! POOPWIRE REQUIRES SYSTEMD???

I've been booting MX with its SysVInit option. (systemd gives errors and is slower).

This audio stack is CRAP! systemD????

I'll reboot and try the systemctl commands.
🤨
I don't think you can have a half modern/half archaic Linux box and not expect quirks--much less flawless audio anything. That is unless you're an expert. Right?

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Booted up with systemd and tried the above systemctl which reported no error messages (so it appears to have worked restarting poopwire).

No success. No surprise.
lunardigs wrote: That is unless you're an expert
You told me that you and audiophile were "Experts"! You were supposed to fix my system! LIARS! TROLLS! I ought to report you two to... What? Oh sorry. I misheard when you said you were "Escorts".

Nevermind.
largos wrote: my ownership of a firewire device
Buy something modern, you cheap git. You are a complete failure as a sugar daddy. That's what your grand-daughter told me anyway.

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Zeisner wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2026 10:22 pm Not much to use if all the distros I tested slow down after 30-60 minutes until I have to wait for several minutes just for the start menu to open, even on a modern machine with a strong CPU and plenty of RAM. Some distros like Mint can be woken up again after standby/hibernation, others like CachyOS need to be restarted. The cache system is broken, just like the scheduler. Maybe compiling your own kernel is the solution (Something everyone highly recommended) but I don't care anymore. I rather go back to Atari TOS than trying to turn a Linux desktop distro into something useful. I don't want to tinker endlessly ("Best car ever!"), I want a tool that works if I need it.
If that happened on Windoz, wouldn't you be using the task manager to see what's going on? Sounds like some app you're using has a memory leak. Maybe stay off those porn sites? :lol:

In 17 years of using linux distros, I've never experienced those kinds of slowdowns.

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j_e_g wrote: Thu Mar 26, 2026 12:55 am Booted up with systemd and tried the above systemctl which reported no error messages (so it appears to have worked restarting poopwire).

No success. No surprise.
You should follow your own advice for noobs and try linux mint.

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